I was on a short trip to Ibadan, South-west Nigeria, early in the week when I ran into an old friend; a clergy, who is also doing well for himself in the Real Estate subsector. As would be expected, after the initial salutations and ‘how fars’, we went into specifications on what he has been doing and how business was faring. He thanked me sumptuously for the very way my articles on this column have been a huge blessing to him in his business. I thanked him in return for finding our articles helpful to him in his field of endeavors like so many others that have reached us through the telephone and other social media.
As we drove on, he asked me what I was driving so fast to catch up with in Ibadan that early in the morning. I told him I had an Appearance and could not risk arriving late at the court. Curiously, he asked; ‘is it a land matter?’ I answered in the affirmative. I now asked in return; ‘why did you guess so correctly?’ He said well; seven out of ten litigations in the south-west part of the country are land litigations. He now went further to recount his ordeal in the hands of land grabbers, who descended on his on-going building project, took it over and completed it and handed it over to a land grabber kingpin who now comfortably lives in the house with his family. He recounted how he wasted so much resource with the police, trying to recover the same property and how such effort has only resulted in more losses for him. He said the police only told him after spending so much through them that land matters are not police responsibility. To him, the police had treated him most unfairly!
Truly, I sympathized with him, but told him the bitter truth; that the police was correct. Land matters are not police matters. Any one aggrieved on land matter should approach the court of law. He felt disappointed even more. I asked him what Title he had to the land. He said none. I asked him why? He said, he bought the land from a childhood friend, and therefore, did not see the usefulness of a Title Deed. I now asked him for the documents given to him by the sellers, to show that there was a valid transfer of the disputed land, he said non; and reiterated that there was no need for any paper since he did not expect a childhood friend of his, who is also a devout Christian to short-chain him in such a transaction so mutually consummated on trust. He went further to recount how the seller had taken over the ugly situation by inviting soldiers into the matter and got the land grabbers beaten up, I asked him if that got his land back, he answered in the negative. I now asked him; was it the seller their relatives that trespassed the land? He said no. So; ‘do you not think both you and the sellers are helpless in the face of this predicament now?’ His response was even more pitiable. His made himself a clear victim of opportunists. He could not understand why his sweat for over twenty years could just helplessly slip off his arms and he is unable to do something to savage the situation. This is the story of so many Nigerians who do not see any big deal in securing their hard-earned landed properties by procuring the necessary statutory titles with fractions of the acquisition costs. In fact, a victim of similar circumstance told me he could not imagine expending over seven hundred thousand naira perfecting the Title Deed for a property that costs him just seven million naira to procure. By the time he made this statement, he was already on an appeal on a judgment he got against him by a claimant who convinced the court with superior title deed to a piece of land where he built the sumptuous three bedrooms apartment in the suburb of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. From his explanations, the appellate matter was unlikely to go in his favor, except a major miracle happens. The question is; is it not tantamount to penny-wise, pound foolish to discountenance a genuine Title Deed at the risk of loosing same to the die-hard land-grabbers who have become more sophisticated and wade huge connections in the police, political class and even in the judiciary mostly in the south-western part of the society today? Your answer is as good as mine! It is fool hardy for a man to let down his guards in this direction. Those who are in this desperate act of converting people’s landed properties are usually better prepared. They have the resources to get the best legal representation. They have connections to the highest level of police authorities and in some very desperate cases, they can afford the most potent black magic, which is one of the instruments they employ in wrestling lands and landed properties from helpless owners.
As bad as this may seem, the truth is; the situation is not infinitely helpless. The laws have not finally gone to bed to give these illegal activities unabated opportunities. It is just that, we do not seem to wake up to our responsibilities till the chips are down. As the holy book rhetorically asked; ‘if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ Where the rightful owner lacks infallible proof of ownership of a landed property, what can the courts do? The courts rely on facts presented to it to adjudicate on matters. The court is not Father Christmas that will award reliefs that are not brought before it. No matter how strongly a judge feels about a matter, he can only rely on the facts before him. Naturally, the judge being human may play on emotions, but that is as far as the fact before him can sustain such emotions. He who goes to equity must go with clean hands. The strength for ownership of landed properties is embedded in the infallibility of its Title. This should not be left to chance or convenience. It should be a front-burner affair. Title Deeds should be meticulously and professionally procured. The right people should be engaged in getting this done. Short cuts should not be engaged in getting in processing them.
I was having a chat with a property vendor whom the business partners and teaming customers fondly call ‘de law!’ I know he is not a trained lawyer. I now asked him where that title originated from. He laughed and asked; ‘do you think it is only those of you that have gone to Law school that do law work? In fact, we, the property Agents do these jobs better than you lawyers.’ To drive home his point, he flanked his drawer opened, brought out a recently done Deed-of-Conveyances and threw it at me to take a look at, as a way of buttressing his point. I flipped through the pages of the document, right from the first page; there were very glaring and apparent errors that are capable of voiding that documents if subjected to legal tests. He told me there was no Title Deed he does not personally handle. I now asked him what happens if such properties with defective titles end up as subjects of litigations. He said ‘well, that is where lawyers like you come in to clear such messes. This is a common sight in the Property world. Owners prefer to pay peanuts to these jack-of-all-trade to get these all-important documents done than to pay professional who are trained to handle their processing. Unfortunately, a defective Title Deed is as helpless as non-title. In some instances, such holders may even open themselves up for criminal prosecutions for possessing such forgeries. It is not in the interest of property owners to indulge in these acts of illegalities to short cut the possession of Title Deeds.
Some State governments, knowing the strategic importance of Title Deeds have come up with various palliatives to cushion the harsh financial effect of procuring these Deeds. One of such states is Ogun State government that just concluded ‘The House Ownership Charter’ where retail home owners got as much as 60% discount off the processing cost of their C of O. A lot of Ogun landlords took advantage of this to regularize their Titles. I must say, this was a tip of the iceberg as hundreds of home owners could not jump on this trail before it sailed pass them. Thousands of properties are completed monthly within the territory of Ogun State and these properties still require Title Deeds or perfection of same. If you fall in this category, look for the next professional to commence this process for you. You never can tell how close to you these ubiquitous and all-powerful land-grabbers are to you. If they come knocking on your doors, you can find your Title Deed weighty enough to knock them off. In our next edition, we will take a look as some of these Title Deeds that can confer legitimate ownership on you.
Akhigbe Domini M
